Injury Prevention – Strength Trainings Role – Part 1

When something thinks about the benefits of strength training for footy, the most common benefits that people think of are ‘putting on size to dish out and absorb hits’ and ‘be stronger for contests.’ But then when pressed for more benefits, and particularly if you have read several of the articles here, you would be able to name the real benefit of strength training for footy is an improvement in footy-specific expressions of power such as;

• Higher vertical leap
• Quicker first 10 steps
• More powerful deceleration and changing of directions
• Improved tackling power
• Functional core strength

Just to name a few. However one thing that we haven’t really discussed and indeed is only touched on early in the books, is arguably the most important benefit of a properly designed an executed strength training program. And that is injury prevention. This discussion is going to be broken down into 3 parts;

• In part 1 we will discuss how exactly strength training provides for a reduction in injury
• In part 2 we will tie this in with the importance of functionality in strength training – because if the strength training isn’t functional and focused on the demands of footy, not only will it not provide for injury reduction, it will actually increase the likelihood of injury in a game situation. This will also include several specific example exercises
• In part 3 we will look at a couple more functional movements and also look a little more at the actual return from an injury.

How does strength training provide for injury reduction?

So how exactly does strength training provide for injury prevention or at the very least injury reduction of certain types? In short, it has to do with the way that strength training makes the body (specifically the muscular-skeletal as well as the nervous system) more resilient. But even more specifically, how?

Firstly, strength training increases the structural integrity of muscles and bone, as well as the associated connective tissues (such as ligaments and tendons.) It does this by placing them under a stress (lifting a weight repeatedly), and in response to this stress, provided adequate recovery, these same muscles and connective tissues will grow slightly stronger and more resilient. This means that the same stressor in the future (the same weight of movement) will not be as stressful, and as a result, the unit is now stronger. Of course this is a simplification of a complex process, and indeed it takes more than 1 session or 1 exercise to achieve this, but I am outlining this in order to understand the concept.

Furthermore, the higher the stress that the particular unit has been under (the heavier the weight, or the quicker and more explosive the plyometric movement), the more resilient and resistant to potential injury in a similar movement pattern the particular unit will be. For example, the more well developed you are in a squatting pattern, the less likely it is that you will suffer soft tissue injury during a double legged jump and land. This is even more the case, if you have built up, and combined this heavy squatting ability with a form of plyometric training in the squat movement (such as squat jumps or the more advanced depth drops.)

So essentially, you are developing structural integrity to particular muscle groups in particular functional patterns. A further spin-off of this mechanism is the fact that the better conditioned you are, the more resistant to fatigue your nervous system is in the movement, and as a result, the rate of injury or chance of injury is also reduced. This is important, as it is later in quarters and games that soft tissue injury is more likely to result, once fatigue has set in. Just think about it: you are a ruckman, and you are getting tired and you have been jumping and landing all day. As you progressively get more tired, your system is less resilient in coping with the impact of the landings, and as a result, the chances of going over on an ankle, or a knee caving inward upon landing, is much more likely as the muscles supporting these structures start to fatigue. But the stronger these supporting muscles are in these jumping and landing positions, the more resilient they will remain, and as a result, the less likely this injury is. In other words, this extra functional strength provides a greater buffer to fatigue to the surrounding muscles of these structures.

Don’t underestimate how important a benefit this actually is – after all if you are injured, you aren’t playing, and if you aren’t playing, it doesn’t matter how quick you are and how good your vertical leap is. Hence why I say that injury prevention is at least on par with any other benefit derived from strength training.

However, as I said earlier, the principles of functionality must be met, or else none of what I am saying here applies. If you are doing bodybuilding style training, rather than training functional movement in your strength development, the injury reduction benefit will not be a result, but even worse, injury will be more likely. Stay tuned for part 2, where we will cover exactly why this is the case, as well as what to do about it, and give several examples of specific exercises and injuries.

Strength Coach